Producing female terminals comprising a conductive-material body which, on one side, is provided with means for connecting to an electric cable and, on the opposite side, forms a housing seat for a male blade terminal is known in the art. The seat is provided by a bottom wall of the body and two side walls projecting from opposite sides of the bottom wall. The upper ends of the side walls are folded one towards the other to define an undercut. In the bottom wall there are three projections forming electrical contact points with the male blade terminal.
The female terminals of the known art further comprise an elastic element destined to push the blade male towards the bottom wall of the seat so as to produce the electrical contact with the contact projections. The elastic element consists of a tongue which is inserted into the seat under the undercut-folded ends of the body side walls. Such a terminal may be destined, in particular, to the automotive field, and is described in the international application WO 2008/120048.
These known terminals provide, however, some drawbacks.
In fact, the elastic element rests on the inner walls of the seat consisting of the terminal body and, upon insertion of the male terminal blade into its respective seat, it may place and deform in an undesired way. This prevents from reliably generating an impulse force towards the contact projections with optimal intensity and direction, thus invalidating the quality of the electrical contact, for example reducing the overall contact area.
Furthermore, the terminal structure is relatively complex and its assembly results in being expensive.